The shape and color of the Cloud formations have a dark tinge out at the farther edges. The market for Software As A Service applications seems headed into a commoditized future. As more and more software companies offer SaaS products, the swelling competition will exert ever-growing pressure on pricing. Sound familiar? It should, for increasing power and availability of choices coupled with decreasing price has been the reality of the PC market for many years. But that dark future is not inevitable for SaaS. Consider the example of a company that still consistently gets premium prices for a premium product family in the midst of the PC sameness. Even better, a company who enjoys continuing levels of customer loyalty its competitors can only helplessly envy. SaaS vendors who want more than subsistence, take note: Who will be the Apple of the SaaS community?
I’ve been a Mac user for nearly 20 years. My iPod handles the music that is a constant companion, and my iPhone goes everywhere with me. (I wish that I had far more than the few shares of APPL in my IRA holdings.) I enjoy my trips to the Apple store, and the thought that maybe there might be cheaper prices to be found elsewhere holds no allure. While I’ve only had to call for Support a bare handful of times over the years, each occasion has been effective and pleasant. 
Saying “it just works” is only the beginning part of the reason I keep buying from Apple. There is a consistent experience of delight inherent in the products themselves, in their use, and in interacting with the people of the company that is not accidental; it’s all the result of the company’s relentless insistence on excellence of design and execution. That insistence works for the company as well as the customers.
The single source for all of the product’s components is a key aspect that SaaS vendors wishing to emulate Apple’s success need to recognize. The seamless linkage between my computer, phone and music player wouldn’t be possible if all three came from different vendors and the burden of tying them together was on me. I have no interest in learning about technology, I just want to use it. I realize that Apple doesn’t make all of the components of their products themselves — but I have only one number to call when I have a question. And I almost never need to call that number.
(Pipe & Fittings Mfg.) Assessment & Vendor/Product Selection
Abselon is a major pipe and fittings manufacturer located in rural Pennsylvania. The company is privately held and has been in business since the 1920′s. Sales are through distributors and direct across the USA, and the company has several international subsidiaries. Abselon’s products use a proprietary design, and are highly regarded in the industry. The company emphasizes product quality and excellence in customer service as its main marketing points in justifying their premium pricing structure.
A few years ago, the company made the decision to move all of its customer service operations out of the regional distribution centers and into a combined group at HQ. At about the same time, the decision was made to purchase and install a sales force automation system that would be used company-wide. (An MRP system had been installed a few years previously, and it had been discovered that in order to get the full benefit from that resource, more timely and accurate data was needed from sales at all levels so that appropriate forecasting could be done. Accordingly, a selection process was begun for a unified SFA product.)
Revised: December 2, 2011